The Master EarthBender
by Guardian Alpha
Summary: Aang and his group have a plan to stop the Firelord, until a strange Earth-Bender convinces them to try something different. R&R
1. The Guardian Appears

Chapter 1: The Master Earth-Bender

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Air-Bender or any characters involved except for Guardian E. Earth

"I'm telling you! We do not need to be worried about taking on any fire lords, or princes, or crazy psychos right now!" Sokka shouted once again

Aang, Katara, and Toph had been ignoring his requests to abandon their plan. They were going to go the Fire Nation and stop Fire lord Ozai before he could use Sozen's comet and destroy the Earth Kingdom.

"I don't think you saying no is going to stop the Fire lord Sokka, but you can try." Aang said, seriously at first before his tone slipped into mocking him

Sokka opened his mouth to say something, then closed it knowing it wouldn't do any good. "I'll go pack my stuff." he said walking away to gather his belongings.

Toph stopped what she was doing and looked deep into the forest around the clearing where they'd been staying. "Something's coming." She said

Aang and Katara followed her gaze and saw a large dust-trail fast approaching.

"What could that be?" Katara asked

"Let's hope it's not that tank thing and Azula again." Aang said remembering the torture they'd been through with that.

"It's not that." Toph replied "The movement is different."

"Then what could it be?" Sokka asked

Trees snapped and fell as the object grew closer

"It doesn't sound too happy. So I don't think it would be a good idea to find out." Aang said hopping on top of Appa "Alright buddy, yip yip."

The other three gathered their belongings and jumped on Appa with Aang. As they began to ascend the approacher finally appeared. It was a young man in a brown jacket and brown pants. He pushed with his feet and leapt high into the air past the group.

"Whoa…" Aang said watching the figure fly past

"Who is it?" Sokka asked unsheathing his sword

"I don't know." Katara replied

The figure landed safely on Appa's back and looked around. He had some fuzz on his head that looked a bit like hair, but more like dirt.

"Hello" he said looking at them

"Who is it?" Toph asked

"My name is Guardian E. Earth, and I wish to assist you." He said bowing

Toph stood up suddenly and walked up to Earth. He lifted his head to her.

"Listen buddy. We already have the Earth Bender position filled." She said poking him in the chest

"Calm down, I didn't mean to cause offense." He said putting his hands up defensively

Katara giggled slightly before signaling Earth that he didn't need to hold his hands up because Toph was blind.

"Hold on Toph." Aang said walking up to Earth "What kind of name is Guardian?" he asked

"That's my last name. Where I'm from we're told to introduce last name, then middle initial, or name, then first name."

"Then what's the E stand for?" Toph asked

"E." He replied shrugging

"Yeah, what does it stand for?" Sokka asked

"E. It stands for E. All Guardians have a middle name like that." Earth explained

"Oh… that's a little… odd." Aang replied

"You grow used to it. Anyway, I overheard you guys talking back there. I wanna know if I can help." Earth offered

"Well like I said, the earth bender spot is filled, so sorry." Toph said angrily

"Hold on Toph." Aang replied putting a hand up. He looked at Earth. "Let me see what you can do."

The group landed Appa in a large mountainous clearing where Toph, Aang, and Earth dismounted and touched the ground. Earth looked from Toph to Aang.

"So what do you want to see?" He asked

"First let's see how well you Bend." Toph said quickly "See that boulder over there?" She asked pointing at a large boulder that was twice the size of Appa "We'll consider taking you with us if you can move that."

Aang was surprised at Toph's challenge "Hold on guys-"

"Alright." Earth said cutting Aang off.

The group looked at him in surprise.

He took a step toward the boulder and breathed in deeply. He released his breath then nodded to himself. He slammed his foot down into the ground and lifted his hands up, the boulder loosed itself almost instantly.

Toph was amazed, there was no vibrations from the boulder as it was ripped from the ground. Aang and the others who could see were amazed at the fact he just pulled it free.

Earth threw his right hand to his left and it began to tremble. He stopped a pile of rocks that had been leaning on the one he'd lifted from falling to the ground with his now free right hand. He lifted all of them into the air and spun them about before throwing them with a twirl and a fling of his arms.

Aang nodded his approval

"That's nice, but I could've done that." She said

"Then what else shall I do?" Earth asked

"Beat me." She replied

Aang looked at her in amazement. "Toph!" he said, he'd had enough of her jealousy.

Earth put his hand out "If I have to beat her to prove my worth, so be it." He said

He and Toph stepped out away from Appa and the others and stared each other down. Toph made the first move with a slam of her foot she brought up a small, dome like structure that trapped Earth's arms and legs. She flicked her wrist right and a large rock flew from the ground at Earth's head. He struggled for a second before forcing a clump of earth to fly out of the ground and slow down the rock's speed so it didn't do much when it hit him. He grunted from exertion as he desperately began to pull Toph's prison apart. Toph held it in place as she tried to make sure he didn't get free, if he did it was all over. Toph kept her hands together, but slammed her right foot sending a wave of dirt at Earth to knock him off balance.

Earth pushed with his legs shooting himself into the air causing the barrier to close back and seal the wave in place. He landed in front of Toph with a slam sending her flying into the air. He slammed his foot out and swung his right hand around a flat, smooth ramp formed and slid Toph down in front of him.

"Can I-" He was interrupted as Toph slammed her fist and a pillar of earth shot between her legs and hit Earth in the face. Earth flew through the air a few feet and landed sprawled on the ground. Toph slammed her fists again and pushed herself onto her feet and resumed her usual stance

Earth pushed himself up and held his head. "Ow…" He groaned

"Enough." Aang said calling off the match "I think Earth has proved himself Toph." He continued

"Oh yeah. He can join." Toph said non-caringly as she threw her wrist back and walked away.

Earth sighed as Aang just stared after her, surprised. 


	2. Fire Prince Zuko

Chapter 2:  
>Fire Prince Zuko<p>

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Airbender or any of the characters involved except Guardian E. Earth

The group had moved on from the battlefield very quickly. After Toph had left Earth and Aang to discuss what had just happened a large group of Fire Nation tanks were approaching them. Earth apologized because apparently the rocks he'd thrown earlier and one of them smashed into a tank attracting the group that followed it. They traced the trajectory and found Aang and his group.

"Time to go!" Sokka shouted seeing the tanks moving toward them

Aang swept himself up onto Appa, Earth looked toward the tanks. "Go! I'll hold them off!" He shouted before running off

"Earth! No! You can't do it alone!" Katara shouted after him

"Hey Twinkle toes, where's Bulky running off to?" Toph asked approaching Appa

"Some Fire Nation soldiers found us. He's going to hold them off to let us escape." Sokka explained

"Really now?" Toph asked

"Yes, but there's no way he can hold them off on his own." Katara said worried

"Don't worry about him. He can handle himself." Toph said pushing her fists down creating two pillars that sent her flying up onto Appa's back.

"What do you mean? It's a squad of tanks!" Sokka shouted

Sounds of the battle reached the group and Aang whipped Appa's reins to get him into the air. The Bison took off toward the battlefield. They flew overhead and saw nothing but smoke as one of the tanks had flipped over and fired it's canister into the ground exploding and creating a large dust cloud that mixed with the smoke making it impossible to see the fighting.

Aang swung his staff through the cloud and dispersed it to show Earth twirl on the spot and slam his fist into a soldier's face before he slammed his foot down creating a pole that shot out of the ground sending a tank onto one set of treads before falling over.

"How's he doing that!" Sokka shouted

"He was holding back in the fight." Toph said suddenly

The three of them looked back at her and saw she was reclining against Appa's saddle.

"What do you mean he was holding back?" Aang asked

"Like I said, Bulky down there was holding back in our fight. I could tell because his body wasn't vibrating nearly as much as it should've been if he was actually fighting me." Toph said pointing down at Earth

The group looked back down at him again and saw him claw his hands through the air summoning a large stalactite that pierced through the bottom of the tank before picking it up into the air. He twirled and sent a wave of rocks flying at a nearby group of soldiers. He jumped lightly and slammed down creating a small earthquake that shook the whole of the remaining soldiers to their cores. Earth looked up at Appa before pushing off with his feet sending himself flying high into the sky where Sokka and Aang grabbed his forearms and pulled him up until he grabbed Appa's saddle and pulled himself up.

"What was that?" Sokka asked grinning as Earth released a pent up breath

He opened his eyes and looked at Sokka sternly "That's what happens when you anger a Guardian." Earth replied

"Well then, I'm glad you're on our side." Sokka said smiling

Earth nodded at this "That brings me to why I actually came to you today." Earth said

"What?" Aang asked

"There is going to be a war in three months time. The Guardians would normally handle this ourselves but there are going to be more enemies than we can handle. So we're going around and recruiting people from different worlds, a few I can name so far as Fire, Death, and Gatescholar who the rest of us still out in the field have received word that they've already completed their objective and certified their world's assistance." Earth explained

"Well, what kind of war is it?" Aang asked

"One that's on a scale that none of you have seen before, and one that you should never see again." Earth said solemnly

Aang nodded his understanding "Alright. We'll help." He said

"A-Aang!" Katara shouted surprised

"What?" He asked

"We don't even know who we'll be fighting." Sokka shouted

"That won't be too hard to see." Earth replied

"He's not lying" Toph added

"Like I said, when you need us we'll help." Aang said again

"Thank you Aang." Earth said nodding

Aang nodded back "I do have one question." He said

"What's that?" Earth asked

"Why three months time?" Aang asked

"Good question. We, the Guardians that is, decided we'd do something about it on this date. We'd tried to do something already but had failed. So we gave ourselves time to go around and collect a force to assist us and take down the enemy so we could stop their reign of terror" Earth explained

"We'll have Fire Lord Ozai defeated by then. We'll have to." Aang said seriously

"Well, part of the contract is that if the world the Guardian enters is in trouble we're to assist however possible. So count me in for helping defeat the Fire Lord." Earth stated

"Thank you."

"Sure, it's what I'm here for I guess."

While the group flew off toward the horizon another figure approached the battlefield and the scattered tanks and soldiers. He leant down and on his face was a large scar over his left eye. He pushed his fingers into the dirt before lifting them and rubbing them together.

"Earth Bender…" He said to himself. He stood up and looked around before continuing on his path toward the Earth-Nation capital. He knew he was to meet his uncle on the way and from there they would start over as a simple uncle-nephew pair that would allow them to escape the wrath of the Fire Lord and to escape their own former lives.

"Don't worry Uncle… I'm on my way." Zuko told himself as he continued toward the capital: Ba-sing-sae

Meanwhile Iroh was sitting at a refugee station and sneezed horribly. "I think my nephew is talking about me." He said to the person sitting next to him. A young man who was chewing a shaft of grain

"Wonder who he's talking to." The stranger replied


	3. Entering the Fire Nation

Chapter 3  
>Entering the Fire Nation<p>

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The last Air-Bender or any characters involved except Guardian E. Earth

Aang and the group had been flying for a few days when they saw land on the horizon. Aang smiled sadly to himself.

"That's the fire Nation." He said

"Seems peaceful enough." Earth said sitting next to him

"Trust me. It's not, it's changed in the last one-hundred years." Aang told him

Earth nodded "I don't doubt it."

Aang flew Appa toward the large island-nation and landed in an uninhabited part of the main island. Earth looked around before leaning down to touch the ground with his hands.

"It's clear for the next ten miles, only trees and mountains." He told them

"Nice trick. How'd you do it?" Toph asked

"It's simple really." Earth told her and then began to explain how the technique was performed and how the energy flow was important, the rest of the group lost him after the first few seconds.

Aang looked around and saw a nearby tree. He looked back at Katara and Sokka and saw they were setting up camp. He turned back to the tree and spun in the air kicking his foot in a full arc releasing a jet of flame. It set the tree ablaze quickly and surprised the rest of the group except for Earth.

"So you _can _fire bend. This'll be easier than I thought." Earth said to Aang before kicking his foot and causing a large clump of earth to rip itself from the ground and crumple into sand to douse the fire.

"Yes, but I don't want to try and use it against him." Aang said looking at his hands

"I understand." Earth said putting a hand on his shoulder "When I first found out I was a Guardian I was reluctant to use my powers too. But eventually I came to accept who I am and began to do what I could for the worlds."

Aang nodded "I know I'm the avatar and all, and that I'm supposed to master all the forms of bending and bring balance to the world, but I don't know if I can do it."

"Well you won't be alone." Katara told him pulling him into a hug.

"She's right. You've got us." Sokka said pointing at himself

Toph nodded her agreement.

"Thanks guys." Aang said looking around at them all.

"Well, first things first. We need to get you guys some disguises." Earth told them

"Us? What about you? You'll stick out like a sore thumb." Sokka told him

"Trust me, I have my ways." Earth told him grinning from ear to ear

The group dismissed the argument and searched the surrounding country side before finding a small wash house and took some clothes off the line. The group dressed themselves and entered a nearby town to look for supplies. While Sokka and Katara were taking care of that Earth and Aang were walking around looking for something to do. Aang noticed that no one seemed to pay attention to the fact that Earth was at least a head taller than all of them.

"Hey Earth. Why is no one seeing you?" Aang whispered out of the corner of his mouth

"Guardian Arts: Earth's Blanket, I cast it before we entered town. All they see is a air here, they see through me as if I weren't here at all, but I can only do it when I stand on dirt." Earth told him

"Can they hear you?" Aang asked

"Nope, like I said, as far as they can tell I'm not here." Earth told him

"You! Kid!" Aang and Earth turned to see two Fire Nation soldiers pointing at them

"Y-yes?" Aang asked coming to attention. Earth looked at him curiously

"What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be in school?" They asked approaching him

"Well you see sirs, there's a very good reason for why I'm not-"

"Yeah Yeah, tell it to the headmaster." They said grabbing Aang by his arms and dragging him away. Earth shrugged, grinning a bit and followed.

They took Aang to a school where the gate was made of steel. Earth stopped on the premises and looked around. Aang looked at him curiously, slightly worried. Earth shrugged and pointed at the steel then at himself before waving his hand in front of his face and opening his eyes again. Aang nodded his understanding before being drug inside the building. Earth looked around and grinned as he noticed something and an idea formed.

Aang was thrown into a classroom with other children and an older women teaching them some kind of subject. She looked at Aang with mild interest.

"Caught another kid who was truant ma'am" The two soldiers said

She nodded her acknowledgement and waved a hand dismissing them. They bowed and left shutting the door behind them. Aang got to his feet and looked at the teacher. She scowled at him

"What is your name?" She asked

Aang hesitated for a moment, then a thought struck him "Kuzon." He replied

"Hm… strange. Are you from the Earth colonies?" She asked

"Yes, yeah, I'm from the Earth colonies." He said nodding

She turned her body toward him now and made a sign with her hands, putting her right hand straight up and used her left as a fist underneath the right. Aang made his right hand into a fist and put it into his left palm and bowed. The teacher tapped his fist with her stick and looked at her curiously. A young girl whistled innocently and grabbed Aang's attention. He looked at her and she made the same sign as the teacher stressing the fist on the bottom. Aang got the message and adjusted accordingly. The teacher flicked her pointer across the room pointing to a seat at the back. Aang walked past all the students toward the seat.

After a few other classes Aang and the other students were allowed to enter the courtyard for recess. There Aang found another student who was angered at Aang for talking at the girl from before, he began to fight Aang saying she was "his girl"

Aang dodged to his right as the kid's left fist flew at where his head had been. Aang ducked as Hide, the kid, swung a right hook. Aang backed up a bit looking at Hide, trying to think of a way out of this. Suddenly Hide fell over. A piece of earth had risen under his foot. Aang turned and looked at the gate to see Earth kneeling inside his hands on the ground. Apparently his Earth's Blanket technique was still in effect because no one noticed him.

The other students began to scream and yell as they shouted to the teachers about Aang earth-bending in school outside of class. The teachers walked over and grabbed Aang by the sleeves and drug him to the headmasters office.

After talking to Sokka and Katara posing as "Kuzon's" parents the group decided it was best to leave and did so. Earth looked back at the city as they flew away, and sighed.

"_Has this world really fallen so far as to slaughter each other? I guess this place is no better than any of the other worlds full of greed and corruption."_


	4. Assaulting the Fire Palace

Chapter 4:  
>Fighting the Fire Lord<p>

Disclaimer: I do not own Avatar: The Last Air-Bender or any of the characters involved except for Guardian E. Earth

The group had arrived at the fire palace in the fire nation after a few weeks of travel. During that time they had evaded Fire Soldier patrols and many other obstacles. They had finally arrived at the Fire Nation palace. They landed a few miles north of the city that surrounded the palace and traveled the rest of the way on foot.

Upon entering the city they immediately made their way to the palace. Aang and Toph paid no heed to keeping secret anymore and burst their way through the door. Sokka and Katara went through first makings sure the guards didn't stop them.

Earth, Aang, and Toph rushed through after them letting Aang take the lead the rest of the group fell into position behind him. They burst through the main doors of the palace and met a platoon of Fire Nation soldiers, arms poised and ready to attack. They twirled their arms in a large arc that sent a wheel of fire at the team. Earth stepped forward and heaved his arms forward summoning in a flash of white light a giant hammer, it swung through the fire dousing it immediately. Aang swung his staff sending the soldiers sprawling on the ground.

"Since when did you get that?" Sokka shouted

"I've always had it." Earth said shrugging with the hammer now resting on his shoulder.

"We can worry about his hammer later Sokka, we need to find the fire lord." Aang told him

Sokka nodded and let Aang lead the way into the fire Lord's chambers. They slammed the door down with some air-bending from Aang. The group rushed in and looked around to see that the Fire Lord wasn't there.

"Don't tell me…" Aang said suddenly, a worried tone in his voice.

"You're too late Avatar. My father has already left to burn the Earth Kingdom to the ground." Azula said as she walked out from behind a pillar. "You're talking to the new Fire Queen Azula." She said putting a hand to her chest

Aang went to say something before Earth stepped forward and put a hand out. "My name is Guardian E. Earth, wielder of the Guardatite hammer and the protector of the world Avatar: The Last Air-bender. You and your father have caused a great evil to descend upon this world and for that you must die." Earth swung his hammer over his shoulder and disappeared as he charged at Azula. She jumped back just in time as Earth's hammer swung into the pillar cracking it and making it groan from the pressure of the building above it.

Azula twirled and sent a bolt of lightning toward Earth. He put his hammer up and it absorbed the attack.

"Earth stop!" Aang shouted

Earth and Azula looked at him curiously.

"She's not the problem here. The Fire Lord is." He said

Earth nodded his understanding and left leaving Azula confused, she didn't know what had just happened exactly, but she knew one thing. They were ignoring her when she was fire Queen.

"Hey!" She shouted after them

Earth turned back as they the group went to leave. He slammed his foot into the stone floor of the palace and swung his hands to his right sending a pillar of earth slamming into Azula. He turned and followed the rest of the group out.

The group made it to Appa and took off flying toward the Earth Kingdom. They arrived to find Fire Lord Ozai using the power of Sozen's comet to unleash a giant jet of flame that burned the landscape below to ash. Aang flew Appa toward the airship that had the Fire Lord riding aboard and jumped off, Earth followed him. Appa turned away as fireballs began to shoot at him leaving Sokka, Katara, and Toph to find another way on board. Aang landed gracefully on one knee while Earth landed and rolled up next to Aang. They stood up and saw that they had landed in the bridge and all the crew piloting the ship was staring at them.

"Take care of Ozai. I'll handle them." Earth said

Aang nodded "Right." He took off with a burst of wind propelling himself through the crew straight toward the fire Lord tackling him off the airship.

Earth grinned. "You've picked an excellent opponent. I'm known around my world as the 'Heavy Infantryman'" Earth crouched and summoned his hammer across his back before lunging at the nearest pilot.

Aang and Ozai fell toward the scorched earth below, but Ozai broke free of Aang's grip and propelled himself with his fire-bending toward a large canyon of pillar-like rocks. Aang landed on another one of these and they stared each other down for a moment before Ozai launched a fireball at Aang. Aang jumped it and sent a few rocks at him but the fire lord dismissed these with a flick of his wrist causing a stream of fire to engulf and incinerate them.

Aang landed in front of the Fire Lord only to get kicked in the gut and sent flying into a pillar. He slammed into it shattering parts of it. Ozai propelled himself forward slamming into Aang forcing his back to hit a sharp rock inside the pillar. This caused Aang to looked toward the sky as his body began to glow. The wound he'd sustained in his fight with Azula had locked his Avatar State away, so he'd thought.

Earth looked down at the strange white light as he dropped the body of the last pilot to the deck.

"That doesn't look good." He said before jumping off and descending toward Aang. He landed on the pillar they were pushed up against and looked down to see Ozai fly off as Aang pushed him away. A ball of wind formed around Aang as rocks from the ground flew up and began to rotate around him. Water from a nearby river formed a small stream that flew around him as well. Finally a ring of fire lit around him in a complete circle. Aang floated toward the Fire Lord as he feebly attempted to launch fire based attacks at him. Aang deflected these and eventually reached the Fire Lord. He knelt down and touched Ozai's fore head with his thumbs and the two began to glow, Aang blue and Ozai red. Earth watched as Aang began to turn red, but with a quick burst of energy Aang returned to his blue color and consumed Ozai in the blue light. Earth grinned as he faded away.

After the fight Aang was picked up by Katara and the others. Ozai was taken to jail and Zuko was found having snuck back into the country with Iroh to assist the team in usurping Ozai. Aang helped Zuko become Fire Lord and stabilize the country. It's been a week since this happened and the Fire Lord was imprisoned and apparently without his ability to bend anymore. Aang and the others were sitting in Iroh's tea shop in Bae-sing-sae. Aang was staring off into the sunset when Katara walked up from behind him.

"You miss him don't you?" She asked

"Yeah. I wonder what happened to him." Aang stated

"Nobody knows Aang, but he said that they'd need our help in a few months so we know he'll be back." Katara said calmly

Aang nodded and turned back to her. She leaned over and kissed him as the sun set ending another day.

Earth appeared in the base room where he saw Gatescholar, Fire, and Death.

"Welcome Earth. Nice job at getting your mission done buddy." Fire said putting a hand on his shoulder

"What about the others?" Earth asked seriously

"They're finishing up as we speak. They should be arriving back soon." Death said in his deep voice

"In the meantime we sit here and rest." Gate added as he turned a page in his tome.

"Don't worry, I brought checkers." Fire said grinning "Death and Gate won't play them with me, but you will right?"

Earth nodded and grinned as he and Fire sat down at a table.


End file.
